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Friday, 22 March 2013

Let the Magic begin!

My third full day in Orlando I went to Magic Kingdom, the park I'm sure a lot of people thinks about as the main Disney park. The park is HUGE!

Magic Kingdom was busy from the start, however, as soon as the park opened almost everyone headed straight for the castle to take pictures in front of it and to walk through it, one of the first things I saw when I stopped in front of the castle to take a picture was someone proposing, and I know it happened at least twice more during the day. Instead of walking through the castle I turned left after Main Street and walked through Adventureland, so I did get a few minutes of calmness before the storm. In Adventureland I went on the Jungle Cruise and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The guide on the Jungle cruise was really punny, he had quite a few groan inducing puns but it added to the laughs. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was much better than the one they had at Disney's Hollywood Studios as it was actually a ride.

I continued around the park in a clockwise direction which led me to Frontierland. Unfortunately Splash Mountain was closed for renovations, I used to love that kind of rides when I was younger. Instead I went on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and I quite enjoyed it! I think it's one of the first times I've enjoyed a roller coaster! I think part of the reason I enjoyed it was because there weren't any big drops, this roller coaster focused more on sharp turns.

In Liberty Square I found the Haunted Mansion, the kind of thing I though Tower of Terror might have been before I went on it. Not really scary at all just fun. If you do go to the Haunted Mansion you can chose two paths to get inside the house (unless you use the Fast Pass), one is just straight ahead and one is slightly longer and goes through the cemetery. I would definitely recommend the one through the cemetery, especially if you have kids, gives them, and you, something to look at and do while waiting.

Fantasyland is the biggest part of the park with the most rides and things to see. Be prepared to get a song stuck in your head for a few hours if you go on "it's a small world", it's worth it though, it's a really nice boat ride around the globe. I also got on the Walt Disney World Railroad in Fantasyland, it stops at Mainstreet and Frontierland but I just took it all the way around to rest my feet for a few minutes.

When I had wandered around Fantasyland for a while I went to Tomorrowland, I did think about going on Space Mountain but I was worried about feeling too sick when going on it, especially since it was in the dark, I do kind of regret not going on it but at the same time I'm not sure I would have gone on it even if I did get another chance. I need to toughen up! One of the things I did do while in Tomorrowland however was to go to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. I actually went twice, it was that good! The characters from the film is on a big screen in front of you, but it is live, and they single out a few people from the audience for their jokes. I could have gone back there a hundred times it was that funny! Another ride I went on in Tomorrowland was Stitch's Great Escape!, it was in a round room and we got those safety things over our shoulders so I was really worried once I sat down that the room was going to spin, luckily it didn't they used the shoulder things for something else. I think I would go back on that ride if I go back as I would relax a bit more getting on it if I knew the seat wouldn't spin around.

Apparently, and disappointingly, I only took this one picture in Tomorrowland!

Of course they had parades in Magic Kingdom as well. First there was the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party which was a lot of fun, and I loved the glass palace they finished it with.

They also have a flag retreat at 5pm, I've known Americans make a big deal out of their flag and it was fun to see it with my own eyes.

The next parade was the Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade. I though they would just walk past like they do in most parades but they stopped in front of the castle and you could dance along with the characters, made me wish I wasn't carrying around a big camera, makes it tricky to just jump around.

While I was waiting for what would happen once it got darker I was just wandering around the park, had a look in the shops on Main Street and met some characters at the Town Square Theater. At one point I randomly walked past the castle and I saw loads of people starting to sit down in front of it, I looked at the time and it was more than two hours until the next parade. But, wanting a good spot, I sat down to wait as well. I sat next to two Canadians and so luckily time passed a little quicker when I had someone to talk to. And of course once it started getting dark it was nice looking at the castle which was all lit up. I'm glad I sat down early though as it quickly got crowded and there was nowhere for people to walk.

Once the Electrical Parade started people was standing up to take pictures, the employees had said over the speakers to turn the flash off the cameras but a lot of people kept it on, which I think is ridiculous; if you're taking pictures of lights in the dark they will turn out a lot better if you turn the flash off, if not the flash will usually drown out the lights you're trying to take a picture of. Rant over. The Parade was great though, it was so beautiful! I loved the colours and floats and everything.

When the parade was over there was maybe a five minute wait before Wishes. This is a light and colour show on the castle. I'm glad I had found a spot right in front of it.

Pretty much straight after Wishes, Celebrate the Magic started, Fireworks!! The fireworks were great as well, everything was great! They even had Tinkerbell flying away from the castle (real person as far as I could tell), I had wondered what the long wire was for.

From what I can remember Wishes and Celebrate the Magic was on again later in the night as well, but a lot of people did like me and left after the earlier ones, which meant it took a long time getting out of the park. I think maybe it would have been a good idea to just go to a different part of the park, maybe go on a ride and then try to exit the park.

In all Magic Kingdom was absolutely amazing! I would love to have had more days there, but like the other parks I did feel like I got to see everything I really wanted to.

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